


Day Two - "Scream"

by Element_of_Fabulosity



Series: Akatsuki no Yona Angst Week 2k19 [2]
Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Gen, Introspection, Sorry Not Sorry, anyangstweek2k19
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-16 21:54:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19940509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Element_of_Fabulosity/pseuds/Element_of_Fabulosity
Summary: Awa. Things go differently. Sometimes stories are ended before they can begin.





	Day Two - "Scream"

**Author's Note:**

> A day late...again. I'm not sorry.

The dreaded morning after.

Still, Hak’s reflexes are shaped by years of training under Mundok and polished to a fine point by this past month of traveling with the Princess. So he notices when she is the first to wake --the advantage of being too young to drink.

He considers following, as he always does, weighing out the risk. It’s familiar enough a motion that his hangover is no issue. Awa, Hak concludes, is safe now. Their leader dead, the abductors will lie low for some while before venturing to test the waters.

Of course there are other risks, but.

Yona killed a man last night.

Not a good man in any sense, but still...a human life.

Hak would kill to protect the Princess in a heartbeat, but he has not as of yet. Though he holds the title of General, his battles have always been staged, with rules, or meant to teach him or his opponent. He has not seen war. He can’t fathom how taking a life will affect the Princess.

Common sense dictates that he give her space and let her process everything. It will hurt, and she has never liked being seen in pain. He used to think it was pride, but now he thinks it’s something more noble; even selfless.

Despite everything, Hak can’t sleep when he closes his eyes again. Memories of fallen stone flash through his groggy mind.

He’s torn, part of him frightened for the Princess. Another part of him is eager to see Yona face down danger, because she’s stronger than anyone has given her credit for. Her role as Crown Princess demanded that she be soft and delicate, but that disguise is sloughing off with every passing day. The Princess is something fiery and inextinguishable.

Eventually, Hak rises. He tiptoes from the slumbering pirates, vigilantes, and rescued victims. He thinks he sees a sliver of peeled eyes when he passes the Green Dragon, but the man doesn’t stir.

Perhaps an hour passes. Hak watches sunrise over the ocean. The colors don’t remind him of a certain Princess; she’s never far from mind.

He is strolling along the abandoned shore when a scream echoes through the empty streets.

Hak’s thoughts fly to the Princess. He knows her voice as well as his own but the scream was one he’d never heard so there was no reason to think that-

Doesn’t matter. His feet barely touch the ground as he sprints through the street. He hurtles around a corner.

The world stops spinning.

Hak’s feet keep moving, even as his mind goes still and his heart crumbles to dust. His ears are full of cotton. He hears nothing, not even the lisp of breath. He sees nothing-- nothing but red. Oceans of it.

He doesn’t feel the strength drain from him, doesn’t feel his knees crash into cobblestone. He doesn’t hear, doesn’t feel the raw scream ripping through his throat like a feral beast.

How long does he kneel there-?

...Time means nothing anymore.

Hak’s fingers twitch forward. 

His fingers close around the knife. He draws it out with something akin to reverence, his gentleness belying the hatred carved into his skin.

He presses the point to his throat and drives it into his flesh.


End file.
